Autumn has returned, which brings with it an explosion of color in the forests, but also much shorter days, a fall in temperatures, rain and, in some regions, even the first snowflakes.
Unless you are a great adventurer, the weather forecast for the next weeks is pessimistic and suggests that from now on outdoor activity will be limited. Therefore, this week we have decided to take care of those readers who like to enjoy good television fiction. Surely there are many.
If you are one of them, you can read below our selection of 3 recently launched series on the popular streaming platform Netflix. After watching them, we believe they deserve one of those blanket and sofa marathons, if possible with food, hot drinks and in a good company. We would love to read your feedback!
Deadwind (Karppi)
YouTube Video published by Originalversions.
This is Finland, isn't it? So, to start we propose you a Finnish crime fiction, shot mostly in Helsinki but also in other small places throughout the country. If you live here, surely some landscapes and place names will be familiar to you.
As we said in our previous article dedicated to Finnish films and series, the quality of audiovisual productions in Finland improved incredibly since the country joined the Nordic Noir wave.
The old days of productions starring non-skilled actors when it comes to transmitting emotions and using body language is over in this part of the world. Due to the quality of the script and the ability of its interpreters, Deadwind is a jewel that has nothing to envy to similar productions made in bigger countries with more resources.
Directed by Rike Jokela, this is a police drama centered on the enigmatic figure of Sofia Karppi, a Finnish detective about to enter maturity, with great intelligence and instinct for her work but devastated by the recent death of her husband and her failure as a mother. For her colleagues and superiors, she is an antisocial human being obsessed with her work, which she uses as a drug to fight against her personal ghosts.
With her new colleague Sakari Nurmi (Lauri Tilkanen), a detective younger than her addicted to toxic relationships, she investigates the murder of the social worker Anna Bergdhal (Pamela Tola). The case seems simple, but soon results in a very complex plot in which the worst nightmares of Finnish society meet: murder, infidelity, corruption, drugs, abuse and even Lutheran religious fanaticism. A good story that will not leave you indifferent
The Mechanism (O Mecanismo)
YouTube video published by Netflix.
We completely change the landscape now and from the dark and quiet Finland we go to the ardent and exciting Brazil. The Mechanism is a political drama written by Elena Soarez and directed by José Padilha, Felipe Prado and Marcos Prado.
Based on actual facts, the series tells the story of Operation Car Wash, an investigation launched by a police task force that ended up unraveling the immense network of corruption that ruled Brazil for decades involving the Federal Government, opposition parties, the gigantic national energy company (Petrobrasil) and its main contractors. Institutionalized corruption that over the years resulted in an immense mechanism that soaked the entire society, preventing its normal development.
Again at the head of the investigation we see a couple of cops, Marco Ruffo and Verena Cardoni, male and female, both tormented by their own personal problems and social disabilities. Their obsession to solve the case will lead them to destroy their lives and careers while they drag the people they love most into the abyss.
If you know the recent history of Brazil, you will already know that Operation Car Wash ended up affecting former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and led to the resignation of his successor, President Dilma Rousseff. The creators of the series claim this is just a free adaptation of a true story, by the fact is that most of the characters and companies depicted can be easily traced to the actual people and firms involved in the real plot.
Good work done by the actors Selton Mello (playing Marco Ruffo), Caroline Abras (Verena Cardoni) and above all by Enrique Diaz, who plays Roberto Ibrahim, a despicable human being who carries most of the dirty work on which the corrupted network rests.
The Spy
We keep looking for the heat of southern latitudes. We are now going to the Middle East to enjoy The Spy, an espionage Israeli thriller directed by Gideon Raff and Max Perry. The plot is based on the real life of Israel's Mossad agent of Arab descent Eli Cohen (portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen), a top-class spy who was executed in Syria in 1965 after his spectacular infiltration into the highest spheres of the political and military elite in Damascus.
This six-episode miniseries claims to be inspired in the actual events surrounding the rise and fall of Eli Cohen, whose work provided Israel with strategic advantage in the struggle against Syria over the Golan Heights that led to the 1967 Six-Day War. However, the series has been criticized for its lack of historical accuracy. It is more likely to be based on the book L'espion qui venait d'Israel (The spy who came from Israel), by Uri Dan and Yeshayahu Ben Porat.
The plot is simple: Eli Cohen, an ambitious young man married to a beautiful woman called Nadia (Hadar Ratzon-Rotem) and obsessed with serving in the Mossad finally gets his chance. He leaves his job and after a short training period, he assumes the identity of Kamel Amin Thaabet, an alleged businessman who to enter Syria must carry out a complex operation that starts by gaining the trust of the Syrian community based in Buenos Aires.
Things will soon get very complicated in his two lives. His children and wife will become the main victims of his ambition in the real, while in the other his lies and imprudence will lead him to take unnecessary risks to serve his country while disguising his true self under a blanket of luxury, money and sumptuous parties where alcohol and sex abound.
